Building material



Oct. 19, 1965 M'TSUE YOSHIKAWA 3,212,956

BUILDING MATERIAL Filed Dec. 18, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet l ATTORNEY.

Oct. 19, 1965 MITSUE YOSHIKAWA 3,212,956

BUILDING MATERIAL 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 18, 1962 M ATTORNEY.

Oct. 19, 1965 MITSUE YOSHIKAWA 3,212,956

BUILDING MATERIAL Filed Dec. 18, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 l I l l 5 )U 75 0l l l INVENTOR fill'Jl/f 705/0 m4 WA 2. M\ ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,212,956 BUILDING MATERIAL Mitsue Yoshikawa, 242-chome, Hatsuda, Sibuya-ku,

' Tokyo, Japan Filed Dec. 18, 1962, Ser. No. 245,612 2 Claims. (Cl.161-133) This invention relates to building material.

According to the present invention, there is provided building materialcomprising a first sheet portion which is stiff and corrugated, and asecond sheet portion which is of an organic sponge material and which isdisposed adjacent one face of said first sheet portion, said spongesheet portion facing said rigid sheet portion and being adhered to saidone face at the peaks only thereof, said organic material being suchthat said second sheet portion is both flexible and stretchable and cantake either a corrugated form corresponding to the corrugations in therigid sheet portion when sheets are stacked or normally assume asubstantially flat form in which hollow spaces are present between saidflexible sheet portion and one face of the corrugated sheet portion whenthe material is in use.

The present building material can be used in facing roofs, ceilings,walls and the like of buildings such as factories, garages, and dwellinghouses.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readilycarried into elfect, reference will now be made, by way of example, tothe accompanying drawing, in which FIGURE 1 is an end view of buildingmaterial stacked for delivery,

FIGURE 2 is an end view of such building material ready for use,

FIGURE 3 is a view showing the resilient second sheet portion undertension prior to being adhered to the first sheet portion,

FIGURE 4 is a perspective View of the building material looking at theresilient sheet portion which adhered to the rigid sheet portion at aseries of spots,

FIGURE 5 is an end view showing two sheets of the building materialjoined together,

FIGURE 6A is a front elevational View of a model structure having a roofformed of the building material of the present invention for use in aheat-insulation test,

FIGURE 6B is a central side sectional view of the structure shown inFIG. 6A, and

FIGURE 7 shows the graph of experimental data obtained during theheat-insulation test.

Referring to FIGURE 2, the building material comprises a sheet 1 whichis stiff and corrugated, and a sheet 2 which is of an organic materialand which is disposed adjacent one face of the sheet 1, the sheet 2facing the sheet 1 and being adhered to that one face at the peaks orcrests of the corrugations thereof. The organic material stretchable sothat the sheet 2 can take either a corrugated form corresponding to thecorrugations in the sheet 1, which form it takes when stacked (seeFIGURE 1), or assume a substantially fiat normal form in which hollowspaces are present between the sheet 2 and the sheet 1 and which ittakes when in use (see FIGURE 2). This can be attained by forming thesheet 2 of material having one or more of the following characteristics:

(1) Elasticity due to inherent elasticity in the organic materialitself. For example, the organic material could be a soft naturalrubber, a synthetic rubber, or a soft synthetic resin, having suitableelasticity.

(2) Elasticity due to the texture of the sheet 2. For example, the sheet2 could be formed with fine corrugations which are small compared withthe corrugations in the sheet 1, or if the sheet 2 is of rubber orsynthetic resin, it would be spongy and contain interconnected orindependent air bubbles.

3,212,956 Patented Oct. 19, 1965 The rigid sheet 1 must be water-proofif the building material is to be used as outer facing material foroutside walls. Any surface treatment, for example, painting polishing,or electroplating, can be applied to the sheet 1 provided that theadhesion between the sheets 1 and 2 is not adversely affected.

Practical examples of the rigid sheet 1 are cement concrete boardadmixed with various kinds of fibres, plywood sheet, sheet, reinforcedwooden board, synthetic resin board, boards made of consolidated animal,vegetable and mineral fibres, metal plate, and porous hard board, all offixedly corrugated shape.

Adhesion of the sheets 1 and 2 can be obtained by the utilization of theadhesive property of the elastic organic material itself, or by asuitable adhesive.

An example of the present building material is one in which the sheet 1is of corrugated galvanized iron, and in which the sheet 2 is ofpolyurethane sponge.

The galvanized sheet iron is reflective of heat energy, whereas thesponge is absorptive, and the hollow spaces between the two provideinsulation. When the iron sheet is subjected to sun-light, due to itscorrugated form it radiates and reflects well. The spaces between thesponge and the iron sheet intercept the radiation directed inwardly fromthe iron sheet. Moreover, since the hollow spaces between the corrugatediron sheet and the sponge are equivalent to a row of pipes, if thebuilding material is so used that the pipes are vertical or upwardlyinclined, when the sun heats the air in the pipes, the latter act aschimneys, giving so-called draught action. It is thus possible tocontrol this cooling action by opening or closing the upper and/or lowerends of the pipes.

Heat insulation in winter can be simply provided by closing the upperand lower ends, or closing only the upper ends, of the pipes in order tostop the draught action.

As for sound-proofness, a corresponding effectiveness to that in respectof heat-proofness can be attained. The corrugated outer surface of thesheet 1 has the effect of dispersingly reflecting sounds and eliminatingthem by interference, and the sheet 2 further eliminates them byabsorption. Moreover, the intermediate air spaces can eliminate soundsby resonance and, since the sheet 2 is free to vibrate, the sheet 2 canhave a wide range of soundeliminating characteristics.

Where this building material is used in roofing and has a lap joint atone end, the sheet 2, if of sponge, can readily be cut to the requiredsize, since the sheet 2 is not closely adhered to the entire adjacentsurface of the sheet 1. It does no harm even if the sponge protrudingbeyond the sheet 1 is left as it is, but it can be cut away if it is notdesired.

FIGURE 5 shows an example of the cross section of a joint between twosheets of building material (FIGURE 2) when used as roofing. Since bothsides 2a of sheet with sponge 2 of said second sheet portion are raisedupward A along with corrugation of said first sheet portion 1, thesponge part of said second sheet portion being adhered to said firstsheet portion of the upper building material 1, when overlapped, servesas packing, as seen in FIGURE 5 and thus prevents water from entering,that is part 11a of said first sheet portion of the lower compositesheet material 11, 12 pushes up the sponge part 2 of the upper material2, so the undulatory form between 2a and 2b results. Thus, no additionalprocessing is required for the purpose of joining the two compositesheets. As can be seen from FIGURE 4, spot 3 adhesion is permissibleinstead of continuous adhesion along the crest of each corrugation. Asshown in FIG- URE 3, when attaching the sponge 2, it is desirable toadhere spots 3 of the sponge when under tension (FIG- URE 3, arrows T)between the crests of the corrugations in order to provide residualstress, which helps shrink the sponge during use (see FIGURE 2)following periods of stacking (see FIGURE 1).

Corrugated sheet (25 cm. X 20 cm.) was used as roofing on a model (seeFIGURES 6A, 6B) and the temperature was measured at points X, Y. Therigid sheet portion was a common galvanized sheet, and the elastic sheetportion was a polyurethane sponge, mm. in thickness. The resultsobtained are shown in FIGURE 7 (distance 1:30 cm.). As a heat-source, aninfrared lamp H (500 w.) was used. As a result, it was found that aconstant temperature difference was observed between the upper part (Xpoint) of the rigid sheet portion 1 exposed to direct light of theinfrared lamp and the lower part (Y point) of the sponge. Since theradiation is in proportion to fourth power of the absolute temperature,the radiation of heat from the elastic sheet portion of the surfaceinside the building will be considerably reduced. Although sponge wasused in the abovementioned experiment, independent foam soft plastic ismost easily used.

While I have shown and described What I believe to be the bestembodiments of my invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in theart that various changes and modifications may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined intheappended claims.

What I claim is:

1. Composite sheet building material comprising: a first portion formedof rigid sheet material having a series of fixedly shaped undulatorycorrugations formed therein; a second portion formed of elastic sheetmaterial; means adhering said second portion to one side of said firstportion at the crests of said corrugations, said second portion beingnormally fiat intermediate said crests, said elastic material beingstretchable to conform said second portion to the undulatoryconfiguration of said corrugations on said one side when a plurality ofsheets of said composite material are stacked, said elastic materialcausing said second portion to resume said normally flat condition whensaid composite :sheets are unstacked.

2. Composite sheet material according to claim 1, wherein saidfirstporttion is formed of galvanized iron and said second portion is formedof polyurethane sponge.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,802,522 4/31Moll 161-135 2,129,488 9/38 Bomberger 161135 2,299,988 10/42 Irving156210 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,122,369 5/56 France.

913,893 12/62 Great Britain. 542,985 5/56 Italy.

EARL M. BERGERT, Primary Examiner.

MORRIS SUSSMAN, Examiner.

1. COMPOSITE SHEET BUILDING MATERIAL COMPRISING: A FIRST PORTION FORMEDOF RIGID SHEET MATERIAL HAVING A SERIES OF FIXEDLY SHAPED UNDULATORYCORRUGATIONS FORMED THEREIN; A SECOND PORTION FORMED OF ELASTIC SHEETMATERIAL; MEANS ADHERING SAID SECOND PORTION TO ONE SIDE OF SAID FIRSTPORTION AT THE CRESTS OF SAID CORRUGATIONS, SAID SECOND PORTION BEINGNORMALLY FLAT INTERMEDIATE SAID CRESTS, SAID ELASTIC MATERIAL BEINGSTRETCHABLE TO CONFORM SAID SECOND PORTION TO THE UNDULATORYCONFIGURATION OF SAID CORRUGATIONS ON SAID ONE SIDE WHEN A PLURALITY OFSHEETS OF SAID COMPOSITE MATERIAL ARE STACKED, SAID ELASTIC MATERIALCAUSING SAID SECOND PORTION TO RESUME SAID NORMALLY FLAT CONDITION WHENSAID COMPOSITE SHEETS ARE UNSTACKED.